liveliness of their manners, and the gaiety of their mode of life, formed a favourable contrast with the sombre and secluded habits of the Ottomans.

I have spoken of the Phanariots as a people that have passed away, as a race whose career is concluded. The late events which convulsed the empire of the Sultans, have overthrown their dominion from its base, nor is it probable that it will again be restored. Necessity at first compelled the Ottomans to employ their aid in those affairs for which they have now educated members of their own religion; and the administration of Wallachia and Moldavia having returned to its native princes, the Greeks are for ever excluded from the government of the provinces. Still, corrupted as they were, one cannot revert to their fall without some feelings of regret. In the midst of an unpolished people, they preserved the manners and the feelings of civilized life; and whilst surrounded by ignorance and barbarism, they cultivated the arts, the literature, and the polish of European capitals. The place of their residence is now deserted and in ruins; its dwellings down, its dwellers passed away; and the remnant of those who have escaped from destruction and massacre, are fugitives and wanderers amidst the cities of strangers.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Language and Literature of Modern Greece.

AMONGST the most politic and efficient measures adopted by the Romans for the preservation of their power, was the extension of their language and customs to every country over which they had succeeded in establishing their sway. It was thus, that, towards the close of their dominion, Latin had become universal throughout the Roman world, and was adopted by almost every race, from the cliffs of Britain to the shores of the Adriatic. The Greeks, however, were too proud of their learning, and too sensible of the charms of their matchless language, to exchange it for the rude dialect of their masters; and whilst the inhabitants of the West conformed without a murmur to the manners of their conquerors, the literature of Greece continued, long after her subjection, to

retain its superiority throughout the cities of the East, and reigned unrivalled from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean.*

By degrees the Romans began to admire what they could not overthrow; the elegancies of Grecian genius gradually made their way into the libraries of Rome, and the refined productions of her immortal writers became the universal study of Italy and the West. As the intercourse of the two nations advanced, and the mistress of the world adopted the accomplishments of her tributaries, the dialect of Athens was by degrees transplanted to the banks of the Tyber; and whilst the dignity of the Roman tongue was reserved for the edicts of the throne, the musical sweetness of the Greek recommended it at once as the natural language of literature and science.† Its universality at this period cannot, however, be regarded otherwise than as one of the earliest causes of its decline, since, in its transmission to so many uncivilized nations, it must have been exposed to contamination, not only in its indi

* Cicero pro Arch. Burtonus, Historia Græcæ Linguæ, pp. 32, 33, 44. Conrad. Gesner de Differen. Ling. &c. p.

44. Diatriba de Gr. Ling. Mediol, 1724, p. 5.

+ Berington's Literary History of the Middle Ages, ap. 1. -Mitford's Inquiry into the Principles of Harmony in Language, &c. Sec. viii.

vidual purity, but in its grammatical construction.* Like those highly-finished specimens of art which are most liable to injury from the extreme delicacy of their workmanship, its texture was too exquisitely wrought for the rude contact of unpolished hands, and in its wide extension it was a consequent sufferer. Still, during the early ages of Grecian slavery, and ere the taste of her masters became totally degenerate, the deteriorations which it experienced were comparatively slight; but when the empire of the Cæsars was beginning to decline,

• "Hellenica lingua per tot terrarum tractus transiens, et per militares homines traducta, pro ratione locorum et gentium, inter quas disseminata est, multos idiismos inde traxit, tam in verbis singulis quam in elocutionibus: cùm aliter fieri non possit quin Græci, Macedones inter Syros, Ægyptios, Italos, Gallos, Siculos degentes, pleraque adfricuerint suæ linguæ ex eorum loquela, ut illi contrà nativum idioma pluribus Græcis vocibus et loquendi generibus corruperint."Ducange, Glossarium ad Scriptores mediæ et infimæ Græcitatis, &c. præf. p. iij.

"Græca vetus nonnulla à Persis accepit, recens infinita à Latinis, donec in barbariem decidit. Syriaca quæ diu Græcos habuit regionis suæ dominos, multas ab illis accepit dictiones, et vicissim dedit," &c.-Salmasius de Hellenistica, Par. i. p. 93.

+ Amongst the most prominent alterations which occurred in the structure of Greek at this period, was, according to Saumaise, or Salmasius, the abolition of the various dialects, and the reduction of the language to one uniform and general tone.

and when Rome was abandoned for their new capital on the shores of the Bosphorus, it evinced the first important symptoms of decay.* The influx of strangers and of foreign settlers tended to corrupt a dialect which its possessors had already ceased to appreciate; and the rapid decline of literature which ensued, served to remove the last barrier which could have protected it against innovation. Greek, henceforward, must be spoken of under two heads: first, as the language of the classics, which was studied as a branch of polite education; and secondly, as the vulgar dialect of the people, which, in their subsequent intercourse with the barbarians, became rapidly and irretrievably deteriorated. Nor was this catastrophe in any degree retarded by the acts of the Byzantine monarchs, who were anxious to render their new capital Roman as well in manners as in name: Latin was by them adopted as the language of the court; the titles of its officers, the terms of jurisprudence, and the acts of the government, were

• Ducange, Præf. v. Diatriba, &c. p. 30.

+ Dalzel's Lectures on the Ancient Greeks, Lect. iv. Ducange, præf. p. v. Gibbon, c. lxvi.

Traces of it were still to be found in the language of the Byzantine court even in the 10th century.-See Const. Porphyr. de Cerem. aulæ Byzant. l. i. c. 75.

§ Blackst. Comm. iii. 321.